(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a data transfer displaying/operating method which allows a user to easily transfer data using an image display in a computer system having a graphical user interface. The user instructs image representations on a screen of the display by using a pointing device such as a mouse to perform a computer operation.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, in a GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment represented by an operating system such as Mac OS of Apple Computer or MS-Windows (trademark of Microsoft) of Microsoft Corporation, a computer can be operated simply by using a pointing device such as a mouse.
In these operating systems under the GUI environment, an icon operated with the pointing device on the screen is called a pointer icon or pointer. An operation of placing this pointer on an object on the screen is called "point". An operation of pointing an object on the screen with the pointer and depressing a button of the pointing device is called "click". An operation of moving the pointer while maintaining the button depressed is called "drag". An operation of moving the object while dragging it and placing the object on another object is called "drop".
In these systems, data transfer between objects is performed via a scrap buffer, and after transfer the data is temporarily stored in a file. An operation of printing data or storing data in a file is generally selected from a pull-down menu prepared in an application program. A file icon is sometimes dropped to directly transfer the file contents. When an edit object such as text or graphic data is to be transferred, the transfer area is first dragged with the mouse. Next, a menu item such as "cut" or "copy" is selected from the pull-down menu to store the data in a scrap buffer. Finally, a menu item "paste" is selected on the transfer destination.
However, since a number of operations are available for data transfer, as described above, the user must selectively use an operation according to the attribute of the object to be processed or the transfer purpose. In addition, a relay operation of temporarily storing data in the scrap buffer or file is required before data transfer, and the user must understand this relay operation first. As for drop, the place where drop is enabled, or the type of data which can be dropped cannot be known in the drop operation.